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The Eiffel Tower at Paris Las Vegas boasts some new bling. And, yes, we’re fully cognizant of the fact people haven’t used the word “bling” since 2008. You get the idea.

The Strip resort spent about $1.7 million installing lights on its Eiffel Tower replica in honor of the casino’s 20th anniversary.

The light show was unveiled with the requisite hoopla on Feb. 27, 2019, despite the fact the resort’s anniversary isn’t until Sep. 1. Paris opened on that date in 1999. Never let facts get in the way of a perfectly good hoopla!

The half scale Eiffel Tower at Paris has about 300,000 rivets. Yes, we counted.

The lights are programmable and come in four colors (red, green, blue and white).

Check out our spectacularly slapped-together video of the new Eiffel Tower light show at Paris Las Vegas.

While the music in our video syncs with the light show, we aren’t entirely sure music accompanies the show at Paris. The best view of the light show is across the street at Bellagio, and they have their own music going to accompany the dancing fountains show.

And while we’re on the subject, it’s fairly obvious the Paris light show is meant to pull tourist eyeballs back across the street from Bellagio.

We’ve often talked about how surprising it is Bellagio’s Conservatory is still free, given trends toward casino cost-cutting, so it’s refreshing to see Paris creating a new free “attraction” for Las Vegas visitors.

The Eiffel Tower light show may not have the “wow” factor of the fountains (nothing does, really), but it’s a fun diversion and makes the most of a distinctive Las Vegas landmark.

There’s a lot to love about Sin City, including all its various forms of sin, but these are a few that leapt to mind immediately. Note: We were going to say “leaped,” but “leapt” just sounds fancier.

Share what you love about Las Vegas in the comments.

1. Bellagio Fountains

Leave this off any top 10 list of things to love and you have to forfeit your Las Vegas card. These traffic-stopping dancing fountains, set to iconic music, have enthralled visitors for years, and we hope the dancing never stops.

The Bellagio fountains use four types of nozzles: Oarsmen, shooters, super shooters and extreme shooters. Extreme shooters send water up to 460 feet high.

2. Sexiest Shopping Mall, Ever

Yes, the Forum Shops at Caesars Palace is a shopping mall, but man alive, what a mall it is.

The Forum Shops at Caesars is the highest grossing mall in the U.S.

3. Strip Clubs

Hey, we waited until number three before getting to some actual sin! Dancers travel from around the world to perform in Las Vegas strip clubs, providing a quantity and quality of entertainment unparalleled in the known universe. Make sure to brush up on your strip club slang.

Fun fact: Strippers make more when they’re ovulating.

4. Bigass Slot Machine Jackpots

Las Vegas remains the undisputed king of life-changing slot jackpots, and the hits just keep on coming. A player recently won $1.4 million at Cosmopolitan on Wheel of Fortune. We’re pretty sure it was one of the machines we were playing a week earlier. Not bitter at all. Another lucky bastard won $1.3 million at the Cosmo a month earlier. In June, a woman won $1.4 million at Golden Gate.

The biggest Megabucks jackpot in Vegas history was $39,710,826.36, won at Excalibur.

5. OMG the Food, Though

There are so many award-winning restaurants in Las Vegas, they need to invent more awards. There’s something to suit just about any craving, and even if you visited a Las Vegas restaurant every day, it would take a decade to visit them all. Oh, and don’t even get us started about the desserts.

This bone-in filet at Joe’s Seafood, Prime Steak & Stone Crab is the second best thing we’ve ever had our mouth on.

6. Highest Concentration of Cirque Shows Anywhere

Cirque du Soleil has been in Las Vegas so long, it’s easy to take for granted the sheer variety and quality of these outsized theatrical spectacles. Have trouble keeping all the Las Vegas Cirque shows straight? We’ve got this with our One-Minute Guide to All the Cirque Shows in Las Vegas.

If you see “Ka” at MGM Grand, don’t miss this photo op.

7. Venetian Eye Candy

So many Las Vegas resorts feature stunning architecture, it’s difficult to single one out, but we will, anyway. A stroll through the Venetian provides so much eye candy you’re likely to leave with diabetes. In a good way.

Venetian is gorgeous, inside and out.

8. Fremont Street Experience Light Shows

It’s easy to take the free nightly light shows at Fremont Street Experience for granted, but they are a must-do. The hourly shows are free and feature bands like The Killers, Imagine Dragons, Green Day and others. The canopy will soon get a $32 million upgrade, so expect a whole new level of “What the hell did I just see?” Fun fact: The canopy’s LED brightness will go from 700 nits to 5,000 nits, whatever those might actually be.

9. The Hooch

Do you know this blog at all? Of course the hooch is on our list! Las Vegas is known for its destination drinking, and there’s no place on Earth with the sheer variety or quantity of alcoholic beverages on tap. Literally. Make sure to check out all our completely consensual panty-dropper cocktails.

And they claim you can’t have a crush on an inanimate object.

10. Neon You Want to Dry Hump

Our love affair with neon will never fade, and while lots of casinos are opted for LEDs, there’s still plenty of gorgeous neon in Las Vegas. If you’re pining for even more neon, here’s a bonus thing to love about Las Vegas: “Brilliant” at the Neon Museum, where classic signs spring back to life with the assistance of projection mapping technology.

Not for actual licking. Did we really need to tell you that, weirdo?

11. Vegas People

There’s a lot to love about Las Vegas, but ultimately it’s all about the people. It’s about the incredible people who work here and make our vacations possible. It’s about the strangers who become lifelong friends. It’s about the seemingly inexhaustible supply of colorful characters. Las Vegas is the magnet and we’re all wearing iron thongs. Or something.

Vegas friends are the best kind of friends. Other than rich, forgetful friends, of course.

Free parking for hotel guests will be included in their $39 resort fee. Wynn Resorts assures customers the resort fee won’t be increased to accommodate the new policy.

Don’t get us started about resort fees. That’s a fight for another day.

But wait, there’s more.

Non-hotel guests will also be able to park free, albeit with validation. Guests will be validated upon receipt of a $50 spend at Wynn or Encore.

That minimum can be spent at all the retail stores, restaurants, shows, nightclubs and lounges at either of the resorts.

Players will be pleased to hear even money spent gambling counts toward the $50 minimum spend to get free parking. The company hasn’t release details about how that will work, but we trust they’ll figure it out.

Sorry, gazing at the pretty things won’t get your parking validated. Buy a couple of drinks, though, and you’re good.

This change in paid parking policy is a pretty big deal in Las Vegas. Paid parking is an ongoing source of frustration for visitors, and many believe is has caused a shift in public perception of Las Vegas as a value destination.

We are one of those people.

So, what’s the motivation behind Wynn Resorts’ move?

Well, there’s the official answer, referred to as “horseshit” in public relations parlance.

Maurice Wooden, President of Wynn Las Vegas, said, “We have come to believe that charging additional parking fees is counter to the personalized service we provide. This new policy directly reflects the way we know our guests want and deserve to be treated.”

So, it suddenly dawned on them guests don’t like having to pay for parking? Right.

This machine at Wynn is $5,000 per spin. You’re covered on the parking.

Wynn Resorts has at least three reasons to change its paid parking policies.

First, its restaurants, shows and retail stores have taken a hit since paid parking was instituted. And it’s not just happening at Wynn and Encore, but at casinos all across Las Vegas.

Restaurants don’t receive the financial benefits of paid parking, at all, so they’re being hurt with nothing to show for it.

Generously setting aside parking fees can’t hurt during a time when Wynn Resorts is trying to restore its tarnished reputation following the Steve Wynn sexual misconduct scandal.

Wynn Resorts is throwing everyone a bone. Which, come to think of it, is what got Steve Wynn in all that trouble in the first place.

We’ll wait.

Oh, like we’d do a story about Wynn without including this chip. Do you know this blog at all?

Third, follow the money.

Wynn’s neighbors, Venetian and Palazzo, still offer free parking. That means many customers park at these competing casinos and walk to Wynn and Encore.

One of the cardinal rules of Las Vegas casinos: Don’t send customers to a competitor. Guests may intend to pass through Palazzo to gamble and dine at Wynn, but there are lots of distractions along the way.

So, the bottom line is Venetian and Palazzo deserve props for holding strong on free parking. If they’d rolled out paid parking, it’s unlikely Wynn Resorts would be changing its policies.

We all owe you a beer, Palazzo.

Along those same lines, let’s not forget another neighbor with free parking: Fashion Show Mall. You can bet there’s a collective sigh of relief at retail outlets inside Wynn and Encore right about now.

We can only hope the new parking program at Wynn and Encore is an acknowledgment by casinos that paid parking is an unnecessary annoyance to customers.

Sinna recently celebrated a birthday, and decided to invite some friends to join him in Las Vegas for the festivities.

Lots of people have done that. But Gabe Sinna isn’t everybody.

After months of planning, Sinna created an ingenious game for his friends to play, inspired by the hit travel competition on CBS, “The Amazing Race.” And his game has raised the bar for Las Vegas scavenger hunts forever.

Trust us, the word “amazing” isn’t used lightly here.

See, just about everyone has a friend who’s a planner. But Gabe Sinna is more than that. He’s a savant. He’s a genius. He’s a freak.

And we’re not just saying that because Sinna dove deeply into the recesses of this very Las Vegas blog for nuggets to inform his “Amazing Gabe” race.

Gabe and the better half of the teams competing in the “Amazing Gabe” race.

While Sinna orchestrated an entire Las Vegas trip for his friends, we tagged along on the part that featured downtown. Not only do we work downtown (in marketing at Fremont Street Experience), the area is home to some of our favorite places in Las Vegas.

Sinna did extensive research about downtown before creating his race, then built his “race” using elements of “The Amazing Race,” including “Detours” and “Roadblocks.” He even used artwork inspired by the show. Told you he’s a freak.

This is the photo caption where we don’t mention how much free time Gabe clearly has.

At the beginning of each leg of the race, Sinna distributed clues (“Route Info.”) and his friends, all couples, got to explore downtown in a fun, unique way.

It should be noted Sinna’s friends are also sort of freaks, as they made matching T-shirts with Sinna’s face on them for each team.

The “Amazing Gabe” race included a carefully-curated list of things to do downtown:

Take a photo with the gold nugget replica at Golden Nugget

Get a pic with a million bucks at Binion’s

Try a scorpion shot at Nacho Daddy

Visit Banger Brewing

Ride the SlotZilla zipline

Visit Golden Gate

Rub Buddha’s belly at The Cal

See the Berlin Wall at Main Street Station

Ride the Downtown Loop to the Gold & Silver Pawn shop

Take in the Neon Museum

Grab a dog at American Coney Island at The D

The downtown race culminated at Pizza Rock, of course. Did we not mention Sinna reads this blog?

Gabe Sinna’s friends are apparently fellow Las Vegas aficionados, because they navigated his clues with relative ease. (It was determined later the Internet may have made some of the clues too easy to solve. Thanks a lot, blogs!)

Everyone got to express their feelings about Communism at the Berlin Wall display inside the restroom at Main Street Station.

While we love Las Vegas a lot, we bow before the love Gabe Sinna clearly has for this town. Seriously. His name even has “sin” in it.

Thanks to Gabe for letting us tag along on several legs of the “Amazing Gabe” race! We were truly impressed with his knowledge of Vegas, as well as his organizational ability, as it’s well-known we are personally bereft of the planning gene.

We are not a heights person, but for some, winning prevails over woozy.

If you’ve done anything even remotely as creative as Gabe for a Las Vegas visit, we’d love to hear about it. We won’t hold our breath.

The eight-foot plate, showing an Italian village, is made of lentils, something we never would have known was a thing except for our enduring love of a 1980’s British sitcom, “The Young Ones.” You bet it’s random.

In Greece or Turkey, this would be broken by now.

In the north section of the Conservatory, there’s water streaming from lion and monkey sculptures, as well as four lemon topiaries, whatever those might be.

Bellagio’s horticulture department employs nearly 160 people, all of them with a greener thumb than we’ll ever have.

The lemon topiaries are made of about 1,400 flowers.

“Topiary” comes from the Latin word for an ornamental landscape gardener, “topiarius,” a creator of topia. No, really.

The centerpiece of this seasonal display is a miniature village with 50 villas, each with a terrace.

You can’t spell “Bellagio” without “bella.”

There’s a bell tower, unbrellas, boats and other flourishes like a 50-foot lemon tree and “Lover’s Rock.”

Umbrellas were once called “bumbershoots.” Yeah, we’re spending way too much time on Wikipedia.

Overhead, there’s a sun and moon, each 16 feet tall.

Every guy in every bar in Las Vegas with sports on. Dude, priorities.

The entire Italian display uses an incredible 57,000 flowers and 560 shrubs. Shrubs never get any of the glory at Bellagio’s Conservatory. While they play a supporting role, without shrubs, the Conservatory would be like “Goodfellas” without Joe Pesci or “Jaws” with Robert Shaw.

Shrubs should really look into getting a better P.R. agency.

You can find this piece in the back of the Conservatory. We’d say this was a clever promotion for the Mayweather-McGregor fight, but it was in the works long before the fight was announced.

Bellagio’s Conservatory & Botanical Gardens are a must-do in Las Vegas, and the first-time Italian display makes it a must-do all over again.

Way back in Jan. 2016, we caught wind of a new bar coming to El Cortez, the classic hotel on Fremont Street in downtown Las Vegas.

At last, the hotel’s current casino bar has been closed and Imbibe bar is in the works.

Yes, even if it’s just a curtain, it qualifies as a security breach. You’re quite the stickler, aren’t you?

The hotel has made no official announcement about the bar, it’s closure, any expansion
or even the bar’s name. Just go with it, anyway.

Naturally, we had to peek behind the drapes to see what’s up inside.

The future home of Captain Morgan spiced rum and possibly other kinds of liquor we care much less about.

Presumably, the new Imbibe bar will try to appeal to a younger crowd. From what we hear, there’s already a strong millennial presence on Fridays and Saturdays. El Cortez benefits from all the surrounding restaurants and bars (think Gold Spike and Commonwealth) in the Fremont East District.

Staffers say not only is the bar being renovated, but it’s expanding beyond the current casino bar’s footprint, and could potentially swallow the area where the keno parlor resides. (The keno desk would then be relocated to the hotel’s sports book area.)

Cornhole and foosball in 3…2…

We’ll keep an eye on the new bar at El Cortez, of course, but in the meantime, you’ll want to take advantage of a new promotion at the historic casino.

Here’s a thingy because we’re too drunk to relay the details.

We refuse to do math unless it directly benefits us. This is that.

So, that’s cool, right? You’re making a withdrawal from the ATM, anyway, so why not get some free slot play?

Once you make your ATM withdrawal, head to the casino cage. There, you’ll be given a certificate for free play. Take the certificate to the loyalty club desk, and the free play is put on your club card.

Vast fortunes have been won in Las Vegas with $15. Actual results may vary.

Now, win something and stick it to The Man. Winning with free play is even sweeter than the regular kind of winning, promise.

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